Albert Forster
Albert Maria Forster (July 26, 1902 – February 28, 1952) was a Nazi German politician. Under his administration as the Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia during the Second World War, the local non-German population of Poles and Jews was classified as sub-human and subjected to extermination campaign involving ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and forceful Germanisation. Forster was sentenced to death for his crimes after Nazi Germany was defeated. Life Forster was born in Fürth, Bavaria, where he attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium from 1912 to 1920. In 1923, he became a member of the SA in Fürth and observed the trial for high treason of Erich Ludendorff, Adolf Hitler, and eight others, which took place between February 26 and April 1, 1924, in the court of Munich. Free City of Danzig In 1930, Forster became the Nazi Party's Gauleiter of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In the spring of 1933, Forster spearheaded the Nazi take-over of Danzig. Between 1933-1939, Forster became embroiled in a feud with the Nazi President of the Danzig Senate, Arthur Greiser, who was to remain Forster's lifelong nemesis. Before World War II Forster had tried and failed to gain control over the organisation of the irredentist activities of the ethnic German population in the Polish Corridor, neighboring Freie Stadt Danzig, which was created in 1920 by Treaty of Versailles, rather it was the SS-dominated Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle that won control. With Forster and Himmler engaged in a power struggle, this rendered the (ethnic) Germans concerned suspicious of Forster. When these territories were annexed after the Invasion of Poland and they became Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, Forster's distrust of the local Nazi leaders led him to deny them political power and he filled all the significant positions with people from the pre-war Free City of Danzig. The result was, inevitably, great bitterness amongst the local Germans, which Forster's Germanization policies, which denied them higher status than that of the Poles,The Nazis: A warning from history:The Wild East naturally exacerbated. In May 1934 Forster, who had been made Honorable Citizen of Fürth and of Danzig, married Gertrud Deetz. The wedding took place in the Berlin Chancellory, with Hitler and Rudolf Hess as witnesses and wedding guests. In 1937 Forster boasted about his fight against "subhumans" and communistsYad Washem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance - Issue 5 - Page 162 1963 Thus, for example, in 1937, Albert Forster, the Gauleiter of Danzig, told Carl J. Burckhardt, the League of Nations High Commissioner for Danzig, how he "fought hard Communists and other Untermenschen ... In 1939, following orders from Berlin, Forster led the agitation in Danzig to step up pressure for annexation by Nazi Germany and proclaimed that in future "Poland will be only a dream".LIFE Magazine 21 August 1939 The Danzig issue was one of the pretexts used for the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. He was hateful of Jews whom he called "dirty and slippery race" and he expressed his desire to control parts of Poland after Poles would be expelled from them.Blitzkrieg w Polsce wrzesien 1939 Richard Hargreaves page 93 World War II Following Poland's defeat, Greiser became Gauleiter in the Warthegau, which became part of Germany after 1939. Forster became the Gauleiter and Reichstatthalter (governor) of the province Danzig-West Prussia from 1939–1945, thereby concentrating both the State and Nazi Party power in his hands. Adolf Hitler instructed the Gauleiters, namely Forster and his rival Arthur Greiser, in the Warthegau to Germanize the area, promising that "There would be no questions asked" about how this "Germanization" was to be accomplished.Rees, Laurence The Nazis: A Warning From History, New York: New Press, 1997 pages 141 Forster's goal was to make the area fully Germanised within ten yearsDieter Schenk: Albert Forster. Gdański namiestnik Hitlera. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Oskar, 2002, page 251. ISBN 83-86181-83-4. and he was directly responsible for extermination policy in the region.Zagłada Żydów w obozie koncentracyjnym Stutthof Muzeum Stutthof w Sztutowie, Danuta Drywa - 2001 Politykę eksterminacyjną na Pomorzu Gdańskim miał bezpośrednio realizować gauleiter Okręgu Gdańsk-Prusy Albert Forster. Extermination and ethnic cleansing Forster was directly responsible for extermination of non Germans in Danzig-West Prussia. He personally believed in the need to engage in genocide of Poles and stated that "We have to exterminate this nation, starting from the cradle"Bylem numerem--: swiadectwa z Auschwitz Eugenia Bozena Klodecka-Kaczynska, Michal Ziólkowski page 14 Wydawn. Sióstr Loretanek, 1 Jan 2003 -Piasnica, miejsce martyrologii i pamieci: z badan nad zbrodniami hilerowskimi na Pomorzu Page 20 Barbara Bojarska - 1989 - Szczególny niepokój wywolala wsród mieszkanców jego wyrazna zapowiedz akcji zaglady Polaków, streszczajaca sie chocby w tym jednym zdaniu: Musimy ten naród wytepic od kolyski poczawszyAlbert Forster: gdanski namiestnik Hitlera : zbrodnie hitlerowskie w Gdansku i Prusach Zachodnich Dieter Schenk POLNORD, 2002 - Gdansk page 388 and declared that Poles and Jews are not human.Zaglada Zydów w obozie koncentracyjnym Stutthof Muzeum Stutthof w Sztutowie, Danuta Drywa - 2001Polityke eksterminacyjna na Pomorzu Gdanskim mial bezposrednio realizowac gauleiter Okregu Gdansk-Prusy Albert Forster.Albert Forster: gdanski namiestnik Hitlera page 221 Dieter Schenk - 2002 postawe Forstera, który nie poczuwal sie do jakiejkolwiek winy, zwlaszcza w przypadkach, gdy chodzilo - w jego mniemaniu - o „podludzi" w rodzaju prostytutek, Polaków i Zydów, o których zazwyczaj mówiono „element". Around 70 camps were created for Polish population in Pomerania where they were subjected to murder, torture and in case of women and girls, rape before executionsMaria Wardzynska: Byl rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczenstwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion. Warszawa: Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, 2009. ISBN 978-83-7629-063-8 page 17Barbara Bojarska: Eksterminacja inteligencji polskiej na Pomorzu Gdanskim... page 67. Between 10 and 15 September Forster organized a meeting of top Nazi officials in his region and ordered to immediately remove all "dangerous" Poles, all Jews and Polish clergyDieter Schenk: Albert Forster. Gdanski namiestnik Hitlera. Gdansk: Wydawnictwo Oskar, 2002. ISBN 83-86181-83-4 page 212-213 In some cases Forster individually ordered executions.Dieter Schenk: Albert Forster. Gdanski namiestnik Hitlera. Gdansk: Wydawnictwo Oskar, 2002. ISBN 83-86181-83-4 page 215 On 19 October he reprimanded Nazi officials in the city of Grudziadz for not "spilling enough Polish blood"Barbara Bojarska: Eksterminacja inteligencji polskiej na Pomorzu Gdanskim... page 66. The total number of victims of what Christopher Browning calls an "orgy of murder and deportation" cannot be precisely estimated. Forster reported that 87,000 people had been "evacuated" from the region by February 1940.Browning page 33 Piaśnica Forster was one of those responsible for the mass murders in Piaśnica, where approximately 12,000 to 16,000 Poles, Jews, Czechs, and Germans were killed in the winter of 1939-1940. Forster personally encouraged such violence; in a speech at the Prusinski Hotel in Wejherowo he agitated ethnic Germans to attack Poles by saying "We have to eliminate the lice ridden Poles, starting with those in the cradle… in your hands I give the fate of the Poles; you can do with them what you want". The crowd gathered before the hotel chanted "Kill the Polish dogs!" and "Death to the Poles".Elżbieta Grot, http://www.bpgw.org.pl/?s=akt&id=168 "Ludobójstwo w Piaśnicy z uwzględnieniem losów mieszkańców powiatu wejherowskiego."] (Genocide in Piaśnica with a discussion of the fate of the inhabitants of Wejherow county", Public Library of Wejherowo, The Selbstschutz later participated in the massacres as Piaśnica. In 1946 a Polish National Tribunal in Gdańsk held Forster responsible for the murders at Piasnica. Role in the Jewish Holocaust Forster at the outbreak of the war declared that "Jews are not humans, and must be eradicated like vermin...mercy towards Jews is reprehensible. Any means of destruction of Jews is desirable."Aleksandra Namysło red.: Zagłada Żydów na polskich terenach wcielonych do Rzeszy. Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2008, page 117. ISBN 978-83-60464-66-3 Jews were killed locally or deported to the General Government. By November 1939 Danzig-West Prussia was declared "Judenfrei"Dieter Schenk: Albert Forster. Gdański namiestnik Hitlera. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Oskar, 2002, page 312 ISBN 83-86181-83-4. It is estimated that up to 30,000 Jews from Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in Pomerania and attached to Danzig-West Prussia were murdered during the war.Aleksandra Namysło red.: Zagłada Żydów na polskich terenach wcielonych do Rzeszy. op.cit., page 135 Germanization policies The Nazi policy and terror instituted by Forster offered only two possibilities to the Polish population: extermination or Germanization. Forster pursued a policy of genocide and forced assimilation of the population in his area of responsibility.Rees, Laurence The Nazis: A Warning From History, New York: New Press, 1997 pages 141-142 At the start of the war Forster planned to ethnically cleanse all Polish population originating from Congress Poland and all Jewish population by February 1940 from his Gau, but unforeseen problems with agriculture workers and inadequate character of German settlers forced him to revise his policies Wladze i spoleczenstwo niemieckie na Pomorzu Wschodnim i Kujawach w latach okupacji niemieckiej (1939-1945): materialy XIV sesji popularnonaukowej w Toruniu w dniu 13 listopada 2004 roku Katarzyna Minczykowska, Jan Sziling Fundacja "Archiwum i Muzeum Pomorskie Armii Krajowej oraz Wojskowej Sluzby Polek",page 54, 2005The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War By Halik Kochansk Forster was willing to accept any and all Poles who claimed to have "German blood" as Germans. In practice, the method of determining whether Poles had any German ancestry or not was to send out Nazi Party workers to interview the local Poles; all Poles who stated that they had German ancestry had their answers taken at face value with no documentation required.Rees, Laurence The Nazis: A Warning From History, New York: New Press, 1997 pages 142 Refusal to become Germanised was punishable by deportation to the General Government or imprisonment in a concentration camp.Piotr Semków: Pobór Polaków z Pomorza do Wehrmachtu. Biuletyn IPN nr 8 – 9 (67 – 68), Sierpień–Wrzesień 2006 In some cases whole settlements were classed as populated by Germans in order to meet quotas Forster laid down.Mazower, M (2008) Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe, Penguin Press P197 Practical issues like food production could influence Forster's decisions on who to expel.Kochanski, H (2012) The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War, Harvard University Press, P106 Forster was at odds with Arthur Greiser, who had complained to Heinrich Himmler, the 'Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom', that Forster's assimilation policy was against Nazi racial theory. When Himmler approached Forster over this issue, Forster simply ignored him, realizing that Hitler allowed each Gauleiter to run his area as he saw fit. Both Greiser and Himmler complained to Hitler that Forster was allowing thousands of Poles to be classified as Germans, but Hitler merely bounced the problem back to them, telling them to go sort out their problems with Forster on their own. This was a difficult task; Himmler's attempts to cajole Forster to see matters his way met with resentment and contempt. In a discussion with Richard Hildebrandt Forster scoffed, "if I looked like Himmler, I wouldn't talk about race". The outcome of these policies was that two thirds of the ethnic Polish population of Forster's Gau would be classed as German under the Deutsche Volksliste. Although far fewer Poles would be removed from Danzig-West Prussia than in the neighbouring WarthegauMazower, M (2008) Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe, Penguin Press P85 it is estimated that by the end of the war, up to 60,000 people had been murdered in the regionPaweł Kosiński, Barbara Polak: Nie zamierzam podejmować żadnej polemiki – wywiad z prof. Witoldem Kuleszą. Biuletyn IPN nr 12-1 (35-36), grudzień-styczeń 2003-2004, pages 4-23. and up to 170,000 expelled.Bogdan Chrzanowski: Wypędzenia z Pomorza. Biuletyn IPN nr 5/2004, maj 2004 Other estimates place the expulsion figure at around 35,000 people.Gilbert, M (1989) Second World War, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, P27 Forster himself reported that 87,000 people had been "evacuated" from the region by February 1940. Conflict with SS and colonization policies Forster's conflict with the SS also had direct and injurious consequences for ethnic Germans. During the war, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans were moved by Nazi-Soviet agreement from the Soviet Union into Poland and used as colonists in Nazi occupied Poland. While Greiser did all he could to accommodate them in his Reichsgau, Forster viewed them with hostility, claiming that his region needed young farmers while the refugees were old and urbanized. He initially refused to admit any of them into his Reichsgau. When a ship bearing several thousands of ethnic Germans from the Baltic states arrived at Danzig he initially refused them entry unless Himmler promised that they would not be settled in Danzig-West Prussia but proceed immediately elsewhere, an assurance that Himmler could not provide. It was only following a lengthy telephone consultation with the desperate Himmler that Forster allowed the passengers to disembark, on the understanding that their residence in the Reichsgau would be temporary, though most did not, ultimately, leave the region. In time he had to relent, and by June 1944 53,258 colonists had settled in Danzig-West Prussia, a far cry from the 421,780 settled in the Warthegau. Forster's Germanization policies left less free land and housing than Greiser's mass expulsions, although it is evident that Forster's perception of the ethnic German refugees as wards of the SS played its role in determining his attitude. Trial and death At the end of the war, Forster took refuge in the British Occupation Zone of Germany. The British handed him to communist Poland. Forster was condemned to death by the Polish court for war crimes (the Supreme National Tribunal) and crimes against humanity in 1948. He was held and had his sentence deferred. The Polish president denied clemency on February 21, 1952 and Forster was moved from Danzig to Mokotów Prison in Warsaw, where he was hanged on February 28, 1952. His wife, who had not heard from him since 1949, was informed of his death in 1954. References * Rees, Laurence The Nazis: A Warning From History, foreword by Sir Ian Kershaw, New York: New Press, 1997 ISBN 1-56584-551-X * Levine, Herbert S. "Local Authority and the SS State: The Conflict over Population Policy in Danzig-West Prussia, 1939-1945," Central European History (1969) 2#2 pp. 331–355 in JSTOR * McNamara, Paul. Sean Lester, Poland, and the Nazi Takeover of Danzig (Dublin and Portland, OR: Irish Academic Press. 2009) 255pp *Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders Of The Nazi Party And Their Deputies, 1925-1945 (Herbert Albrecht-H. Wilhelm Huttmann)-Volume 1 by Michael D. Miller and Andreas Schulz R. James Bender Publishing, 2012. Endnotes Category:1902 births Category:1952 deaths Category:People from Fürth Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Category:German Nazi politicians Category:Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Category:Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany Category:SS generals Category:SA personnel Category:Executed heads of state Category:Nazis executed in Poland Category:People from Bavaria executed by hanging Category:Nazi leaders Category:Gauleiters Category:German people convicted of crimes against humanity Category:Holocaust perpetrators Category:Nazis convicted of war crimes Category:People executed by Poland by hanging